The Sandbox

GWOT hot wash, straight from the wire

Welcome to The Sandbox, a forum for service members who have served or are currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, returned vets, spouses and caregivers. The Sandbox's focus is not on policy and partisanship (go to our Blowback page for that), but on the unclassified details of deployment -- the everyday, the extraordinary, the wonderful, the messed-up, the absurd. All correspondence is read, and as much as possible is posted, lightly edited. If you know someone who is deployed who might have something to say, please tell them about us. To submit a post click here.

GIRL IN MIRMANDAB |

May 17, 2012

Name: Kyle McNallyStationed in: AfghanistanI was on a presence patrol in Mirmandab village, Helmand province. Partnered with Afghan National Security Forces, we were tasked with handing out books and wind-up radios in an effort to promote the Radio Listening Program, which teaches Afghans to read and write through a series of broadcasted lessons.

An education is a commodity in the third world, and we were soon confronted with a frenzy of boys all scrambling to get their RLP gear (it helped, of course, that we enticed them with soccer paraphernalia). Behind the eager faces of the crowd I saw a few girls peering timidly at us from behind a wall. I noticed that one of them was carrying a baby that was almost as big as her. Sensing I should get a shot of her, I raised my camera -- but she was already gone.

After the excitement subsided she reappeared, anxiously watching the RLP books that were now being rifled through by wide-eyed villagers. Again I raised my camera. This time she remained, but abruptly turned her face away.

Looking as disinterested as possible (as I’ve become accustomed to doing for camera-shy Marines) I ambled around the back of the crowd. When I emerged on the other side, the girl had returned her eyes to the books, and when she finally noticed me, my lens was staring back.

I think of all the photos I took that day, none so captured the importance of the RLP’s mission as the photo of the girl. A future is a bleak thing in the third world. Perhaps through education, Afghans, like this girl in Mirmandab, can secure one for themselves.